Anker-Jordan Residence

Nestled in a peninsula on Ossipee Lake, New Hampshire, the 3000 sf cottage is formed by two conjoined prisms that provide an elegant and singular resolution to a wide range of desires and concerns. Among these concerns are passive climate responses, adaptability for multi-generational living, and deference towards the spectacular surrounds – including the lake, forests, and White Mountains range beyond.

The cottage’s lakeside site is uniquely challenging. Beyond its climate, topography, and vegetation – all orientations offer distinct opportunities in need of reconciliation: there are northern views, sparse southern solar exposure, western summer and northwestern winter winds, and southern and eastern neighbors to shield from.

The client family is invested both in the intermingling of the three generations, and the acknowledgment of the interdependent needs of all the generations. To this regard, the family favors the degree to which the spaces may be used as a gathering continuous sequence, whilst providing rather separate moments of isolation and play.

Using a process of adaptive computational design, Scalar developed an elemental prism that maximizes interior volume while affording a high passive environmental efficiency and minimum impact on the site. The folded roof simultaneously negotiates the southern exposure, the northern views, the management of rail and snow precipitation, and the summer westerly winds. The interior of the prism is articulated as interconnected cells that afford a complex landscape of social interaction. The process is then reiterated in a fractal fashion to address multigenerational family program: A conjoined second prism – evolved from the first one, provides a discreet yet connected realm for the young adults occupying the middle level. Below it, the ground floor is given over to the grandparents’ quarters.

scalar Architecture is an award winning international design firm based in New York City. As the term indicates, scalar Architecture operates at a variety of scales collaborating with allied key experts. The fruits of these collaborations are all embracing projects that garner accolades for their transformative solutions, such as the International First Prize for the development of Hamar, Norway, and the Lasso House, which won the Architectural League Young Architect’s Award. In all its ventures, scalar Architecture provides an expansive deployment of architecture and its registers of program, geometry, context, aesthetics and form.

scalar’s residential experience includes dwellings and housing in Spain, Maine, and New York as well as large scale sustainable developments in Guatemala and Costa Rica. With expertise in hospitality and commercial projects, scalar’s work also includes hotels in Nicaragua and Hounduras, and US restaurants Recess and Flurt. Institutional projects include commissioned designs for the Woodstock Association Museum, the offices of the Dean at Cornell School’s of Architecture and an ongoing 100,000 sf medical building in New York.

scalar Architecture collaborates with multiple international partners, including Regional, a joint venture developing hotels in Central America. Urban and landscape collaborations include the re-development of Hamar, and chosen entries for Build a Better Burb and Elemental Chile, as well as a large cross-programmed sustainable park in Madrid, Spain.

scalar Architecture’s Principal is Julio Salcedo, Licensed Arch. US / EU, LEEP AP. Born in Madrid, Salcedo holds a B.A. in architecture and sculpture from Rice University, and a Master of Architecture from Harvard University. He has taught at Harvard University, the University of Pennsylvania, Syracuse University, Cornell University, and currently at City College as an Associate Professor. In addition to the book Generic Specific Continuum, Salcedo has written numerous articles about the work of scalar Architecture.

Prior to launching his own office, Julio Salcedo worked for Pritzker prize winner Rafael Moneo. He also worked at SOM in New York as Senior Designer for the Time Warner Center at Columbus Circle, and for Rick Cook of COOKFOX. He has been a juror for international and national competitions, including AIA awards and the Kay e Sante nan Ayiti Housing Competition in Haiti.

The work of scalar Architecture has been exhibited at the Farnsworth Museum, and has been widely published in both the US (Architectural Record, The Architect’s Newspaper, Interior Design, Princeton Architectural Press, Breathe, House Beautiful) and abroad in Canada, Germany, Norway, Belgium, Holland, Spain, Thailand, Japan, and China.